25/02/2015 11:15

23/02/2015 11:31

28/02/2015 15:03

Pope Francis met with members of the Catholic confederation of Italian co-operatives on Saturday, urging them to exercise the courage to enter into the global economy, so as to “integrate development, justice and peace in the world.”

25/02/2015 16:14

25/02/2015 13:12

16/12/2014 15:50

The President of the Australian Bishops' Conference, Archbishop Denis Hart of Melbourne, has expressed “deep sympathy” and offered prayers for all those affected by the hostage attack which took place yesterday at a cafe in downtown Sydney.

18/09/2014 10:02

26/02/2015 16:35

Although he is in retreat for Spiritual Exercises, Pope Francis is following the situation in Syria with deep concern. Speaking to Vatican Radio the Apostolic Nuncio in Damascus, says "the Pope is constantly adjourned of developments and his prayers are tuned to the suffering of the people".

21/02/2015 15:43

03/03/2015 15:20

Archbishop Ilario Antoniazzi of Tunis comments on the meeting of North African Bishops with Pope Francis and on the fundamental importance of inter-religious dialogue for peace in his part of the world

30/11/2014 14:21

18/02/2015 13:35

Vatican Radio's Tracey McClure talks with Iraqi Christians who escaped persectuion at home and have sought refuge in Jordan. What local churches and Caritas Jordan are doing to reach out to help them...

11/02/2015 12:48

04/02/2015 11:01

20/02/2015 12:45

Tens of thousands of Australians hunkered down on Friday as a powerful cyclone crossed the northeast, damaging houses, bringing down trees, cutting power lines and causing flash flooding, while a second storm made landfall to the west.

21/02/2015 19:32

21/02/2015 11:05

15/12/2014 12:26

Adam Simmermacher, fought for Germany in WWI. This year, his grandson Günther has made a new translation of his grandfather’s memoirs into English, which will be officially released next year with the title “A Soldier for the Kaiser”.

20/02/2015 16:45

18/02/2015 17:04

28/02/2015 16:06

(Vatican Radio) Monsignor Peter Fleetwood comments on the 2015 Lenten papal message in a programme presented and produced by Veronica Scarisbrick. Listen as he takes a look at the three phrases from Scripture Pope Francis used in this document.

19/02/2015 15:20

18/02/2015 09:19

11/02/2015 10:05

22/09/2014 15:34

As world leaders meet in New York on Tuesday at a UN Summit to discuss the global fight against climate change, a new report by faith-based organizations highlights the crucial role a new set of Sustainable Development Goals must play in meeting the challenge.

21/08/2014 11:37

31/07/2014 17:25

10/02/2015 12:45

(Vatican Radio) As we celebrate the anniversary of the founding of Vatican Radio which took place on the 12th of February1931, Veronica Scarisbrick steps back in time to bring you some sound clips from a radio message sent hurtling through the air waves by Pope Pius XII in 1947.

04/02/2015 16:34

14/01/2015 12:47

27/02/2015 13:35

(Vatican Radio) To mark the Lenten season Veronica Scarisbrick invites you to join her on a visit to a Roman Oratory in the heart of Rome. It’s the 'Oratorio del Santissimo Crocefisso', one designed in 1568 by Giacomo dell Porta for the Confraternity of Crucifix.

14/10/2014 11:09

29/09/2014 16:44

28/02/2015 12:38

(Vatican Radio) To mark the second Sunday in Lent we bring you another in the series ' Music to Watch Angels By', a heavenly hymn book compiled by Monsignor Philip Whitmore. A programme produced by Veronica Scarisbrick.

24/12/2014 16:13

19/12/2014 12:44

24/02/2015 13:21

(Vatican Radio) Have you ever wondered when spiritual exercises in the Vatican began? As our popular 'Latin Lover', Carmelite Father Reginald Foster explains the date in which this was streamlined was 1929, the year in which the Lateran Pacts were signed.

Home /
Audiences & Angelus

Pope Francis at Angelus: Peace requires time and patience; No to wars waged to sell
arms

08/09/2013

SHARE:

(Vatican Radio) Pope Francis has urged everyone to keep praying for peace in the
Middle East, saying the search for peace is a long one that requires patience and
perseverance. Speaking during his Angelus address, the Pope also condemned the
proliferation of wars and conflicts and questioned whether they were wars about problems
or commercial wars to sell arms on the black market. His remarks came just hours
after thousands of people attended a prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Square on Saturday
evening as part of the events for the special day of prayer and fasting for peace
in Syria and the world that was called by the Pope and was marked by people across
the globe in different ways.

In the Gospel
for today, Jesus reiterates the conditions for being his disciples: not putting anything
before your love for Him, carrying your cross, and following Him. Many people came
up to Jesus, wanted to be one of His followers; and this would happen especially in
the wake of some prodigious dream, that indicated Him as the Messiah, the King of
Israel. But Jesus doesn’t want to create illusions for anyone. He knows full well
what awaits Him in Jerusalem, the road that the Father is asking Him to take: it’s
the road of the cross, of sacrificing Himself for the redemption of our sins. Following
Jesus doesn’t mean taking part in a triumphal parade! It means sharing in His merciful
love, becoming part of His great mission of mercy towards each and every man. The
mission of Jesus is precisely a mission of mercy, of forgiveness, of love! Jesus is
so merciful! And this universal forgiveness, this mercy, comes through the cross.

Jesus doesn’t want to carry out this mission alone: He wants to involve us
too, in the mission that the Father entrusted to Him. After the resurrection, He will
say to His disciples. “As the Father sent me, so am I sending you… If you forgive
anyone’s sins, they are forgiven” (John 20, 21.22). A disciple of Jesus gives up all
his or her goods, because he or she has found in Him the greatest Good, within which
every other good receives its true worth and meaning: family relations, other relationships,
work, cultural and economic wealth, and so forth… A Christian detaches from everything,
and then finds everything in the logic of the Gospel, the logic of love and service.

To
explain this requirement, Jesus uses two parables: the one of the tower to be built,
and the one of the king who goes to war. The second parable goes like this: “What
king, marching to war against another king, would not first sit down and consider
whether with ten thousand men he could stand up to the other, who was advancing against
him with twenty thousand? If not, then while the other king was still a long way off,
he would send envoys to sue for peace” (Luke 14, 31-32). Here Jesus doesn’t want to
discuss war, it’s only a parable. But at this moment in time, when we’re strongly
praying for peace, this Word of the Lord affects us closely, and fundamentally it
says: there’s a deeper war we must fight, all of us! It’s the strong and brave decision
to renounce evil and its seductions, and to choose good, fully prepared to pay personally:
that’s following Christ, that’s taking up our cross! This deep war against evil!

What’s
the point of fighting wars, many wars, if you’re not capable of fighting this deep
war against evil? There’s no point! It’s no good… This means, among other things,
this war against evil means saying no to fratricidal hatred, and to the lies that
it uses; saying no to violence in all its forms; saying no to the proliferation of
arms and their sale on the black market. There are so many of them! There are so many
of them! And the doubt always remains: this war over there, this other war over there
– because there are wars everywhere – is it really a war over problems, or is it a
commercial war, to sell these arms on the black market? These are the enemies we must
fight, united and coherent, following no other interests but those of peace and of
the common good.

Dear brothers, today we also remember the Nativity of the
Virgin Mary, a celebration particularly beloved by the Oriental Churches. And all
of us, now, can send our warm greetings to all the brothers, sisters, bishops, monks,
nuns of the Oriental Churches, Orthodox and Catholic: our warm greetings! Jesus is
the sun, Mary is the first light that announces its dawning. Yesterday evening we
kept vigil, calling on Her intercession in our prayer for peace in the world, especially
in Syria and in the whole of the Middle East. We invoke Her now as Queen of Peace.
Queen of Peace, pray for us! Queen of Peace, pray for us!

I would like
to thank everyone who, in various ways, joined in the Vigil of Prayer and Fasting
yesterday evening. I thank the many people who united the offering of their sufferings.
I express my gratitude to the civil authorities, as well as to the members of other
Christian communities and of other religions, and to men and women of good will who
have undertaken, on this occasion, periods of prayer, fasting and reflection.

But
the task remains: we move forward with prayer and works of peace. I invite you to
continue to pray so that the violence and devastation in Syria may cease immediately
and that a renewed effort be undertaken to achieve a just solution to this fratricidal
conflict. Let us pray also for other countries in the Middle East, in particular for
Lebanon, that it may find its hoped-for stability and continue to be a model of peaceful
co-existence; for Iraq, that sectarian violence may give way to reconciliation; and
that the peace process between the Israelis and Palestinians may proceed with determination
and courage. Finally, let us pray for Egypt, that all Egyptians, Muslims and Christians,
may commit themselves to build up together a society dedicated to the good of the
whole population.

The search for peace is long and demands patience and perseverance!
Let us keep praying for this!